to little avail
1
7.4
- idiom
- Archaic
:
con poco éxito
- All to little avail.
Examples
-
Moscow has attempted to secure order by adding intelligence agents and beefing up the presence of federal border guards, along with redeploying police from elsewhere in Russia—but to little avail.
Academic text (2010) -
In the 1930s, Carl Sauer spent a great deal of energy, though to little avail, trying to institutionalize Latin American Studies on the University of California, Berkeley, campus and to obtain outside funding for them.
Academic text (1996) -
I have attempted to communicate with Thebes County authorities, to little avail.
Fiction book (2002) -
Throughout the 1990s, successive crackdowns on tax evaders were launched to little avail.
Academic text (2000) -
Obama has pressed Karzai to stamp out graft to little avail.
Academic text (2012) -
I worked in the reading room for several months under the withering gaze of the Fathers of Communism, but to little avail.
Academic text (2011) -
Although the cost of an individual TSH test is less than the cost of a sleep study, a CPAP machine, or surgery, it is nonetheless a significant amount of money, an amount that proved to be spent to little avail.
Academic text (1999) -
Alf spun his dials to little avail and griped, saying what everybody knew: these guys were smart.
Fiction book (1999) -
Because tribal advocates and scholars have been criticizing Montana for decades to little avail, there is ample reason for skepticism that the Supreme Court will take up this suggestion.
Academic text (2017) -
I called Facebook to learn more about what "community" means to the company, to little avail.
Synonyms
3
7.4
In a way that does not make a difference
3
4.0
In a way that does not get the result you want
1
8.0
Very little help when you try to do something
Antonyms
How Effective
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'little' (to a small extent) with 'avail' (use, benefit), so its meaning 'with little success or result' is directly derivable from the constituents; 'to' here forms the adverbial construction. Although somewhat formal/dated, the composition follows regular English patterns and has clear parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
To little avail comes from the old word avail, which meant 'help' or 'use'. Imagine giving a thirsty person only a tiny sip of water — it gives almost no help, so the effort is to little avail, meaning it has very little success.